This was tolerated because the rich could get away with being a bit odd. Being a bit odd, but functionally odd, was actually above the average.
"Enroll her in the school," said Nodoka, looking down at the little girl sleeping at the dinner table. "You're sure it was my son?"
"Yes, though I admit the turning into a talking sabretooth was new," said Hayate, standing near the little girl. "My background check indicates that she is, indeed, an orphan. That she's a martial artist of fair natural talent."
"Therefore an excellent candidate for my school," said Nodoka, nodding. As Headmistress of Mochizuki Academy, the training of ninja maids (and various other students with unusual backgrounds/talents/abilities) was part of her duties.
"As you say, madam," said Hayate.
"Well, we'll worry about that later," said Nodoka. "I think that perhaps I ought to check into my husband's whereabouts and what he's actually doing with my son."
"I took the liberty of checking into it, and discovered his latest misadventure involved some sort of training for your son called 'the invincible cat-fist' - which might explain your son's current feline disposition," said Hayate.
"I see," said Nodoka, snapping open a tessen-style fan and briefly fanning herself with it. "Have it put out to the jonin as a training exercise for chunin. Finding what Genma is doing with Ranma, then reporting back without being spotted."
Hayate considered that, then nodded. "An elegant solution. Is young Makoto here to be trained as Ranma's personal ninja-maid?"
"Yes, but no favoritism is to be shown her despite that," said Nodoka. "Also... put a message in the usual spot for our mysterious associate."
"Setsuna Meiou?" asked Hayate, wanting qualification on that because they DID have more than one freelancer working for them who could be described in those terms.
"Yes," agreed Nodoka. "I'm not sure why, but I sense her involvement in this."
The sabretooth tiger sat on the rooftop watching the hustle and bustle around the compound, and was relatively happy.
His mother wasn't all alone, waiting for a training journey to end, and was fairly content as far as he could tell from a distance.
That she was listed as the headmistress of a large school that put Furinkan to shame was another plus. There were girls all over the place, many getting trained in martial arts, so Ranma simply appraised them from that point of view.
Some, in his humble (or not so much) opinion, should be barred from martial arts for life. Or, at the very least, be kept from any martial arts weapon that involved points or sharp edges so as to minimize the dangers to those around them.
Some others were rather more credible as martial artists, of at least beginning to intermediate level. Most of these made up for a lack of innate talent through a measure of learned skill. They'd never reach the higher levels of the Art, but they'd at least be credible in self-defense or able to hold their own against normal opponents.
There were a few, which he gave rather more attention to, who DID have a certain innate talent for the martial arts and were undergoing the training necessary to hone that gift into its full capacity.
He was also quite aware of it when that 'Hayate' butler-guy popped up on a building not too far away and began looking around. That was interesting, as it indicated to Ranma that either there was some techie detection he hadn't noticed, or else this Hayate guy was just really damn good.
Reluctantly, Ranma turned and leapt off into the night. He wasn't sure what was going on - just that that gal with the really long hair had apparently dropped him off in his own past.
He caught her scent after a few minutes of searching, then began the process of tracking her down. After a few minutes of that, he figured out that she had apparently been waiting for him and was leading him to something else. This was more something to be curious about than alarmed, though he was going to reserve judgement on more of that until after seeing what she was leading him TO.
Which turned out to be:
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(Posted Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:41)
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